I am still alive."

Accordingly, this celebrated service took place next day, being the 30th
of August, 1558. So short a time being allowed for the preparations,
they cannot have severely drained the bag of dollars, which Nicholas the
barber wished to reserve for other purposes. A wooden monument, however,
was erected in the chapel in front of the high altar; the ornaments of
the convent were brought out and arranged to the best advantage; and the
whole was illuminated with a blaze of wax-lights. The household of the
emperor, all in deep mourning attended; and thither Luis Quixada brought
Don Juan, from his sports in the forest, to learn his first lesson of
the vanity of human greatness. "The pious monarch himself," says the
historian of the Jeromites, "was there, in sable weeds, and bearing a
taper, to see himself interred, and to celebrate his own obsequies." And
when the solemn mass for the defunct was sung, he came forward and gave
his taper into the hands of the officiating priest, in token of his
desire to yield his soul into the hands of his Maker. High above, over
the kneeling throng, and the gorgeous vestments, the flowers, and the
incense, and the glittering altar--the same idea shone forth in that
splendid canvas of Titian, which pictured Charles kneeling on the
threshold of the heavenly mansion.

When the dirge was sung, and the ceremonies over, and Charles had, as it
were, come back for a little while to life, he told his confessor that
he felt the better for being buried. Of a scene which might well have
shaken the nerves of the boldest hunter on the Sierra, he said next day,
that it had filled his soul with joy and consolation that seemed to
react upon his body. That evening he caused to be brought, from the
repository where his few valuables were kept, a portrait of the empress,
and hung for some time, lost in thought, over the gentle face, which, in
its blue eyes, auburn hair, and pensive beauty, somewhat resembled the
noble countenance of that other Isabella, the great queen of Castile. He
next called for a picture of our Lord praying in the Garden; and after
long gazing, passed from that to a Last Judgment, by Titian. Perhaps
this was a sketch or small copy of the great altar-piece, or it may be
that he turned to the original itself, which could be seen by opening
the window, through which his bedchamber commanded a view of the altar.
Having looked his last upon the image of the wife of his youth; it